Friday 15 November 2013

Urbean @ Avenue K

If you have not checked out Avenue K, you should. They have completely revamped the place and there are plenty more interesting shops than before. Previously, their concept was for the rich. Currently, the shops are more affordable such as Sushi Zanmai, Daiso, Nichii, H&M, FOS, Cotton On and others. Even their supermarket called Presto is not that expensive. 

There are a few restaurants located at the  Concourse level like Noodle Shack, Miso Korean BBQ, Expresso Lab, Old Chang Kee, The Loaf and Urbean.

I have tried Noodle Shack and Miso, but They were not to my liking.

Urbean's concept reminds me of Plan B. The menu is short and simple. I liked that they have smoked salmon in their menu at an affordable price.

Urbean's menu:

I had smoked salmon sandwich with their gourmet bread. Their gourmet bread was walnut bread. It was sooooo good omg that I gobbled up everything in a jiffy and I wanted more!! The layer of chives with cream cheese was amazing :)

I have been shopping at H n M more of late because of their buy 1 free 1 shirts which are good for gym.

Monday 11 November 2013



GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Bjarki Markússon

(The title word means sheep, and also money)

This photo is just so gorgeous and so appropos of today's wild weather on the Lava Rock somehow!
Bjarki, a trained photographer and creator of groovydirty electro, among other things, writes:

The story behind the photo. This picture was taken in September at Skeiðaréttum in Skeiða-og Gnúpverjahreppi. This is when all the sheeps are rounded up after the summer. Each sheep is marked with a tag and is then found by its owner. I took my kids there and I try to go every year. This picture is taken while I'm on my knees with my arms around my 3 year old daughter so the sheep don't run her down. The view is from her perspective. 

I personally adore the composition and the colors in this shot, and knowing the stories about our guest photographer's photos always makes them even more alive.

Remember our Facebook Fan Page as well as our Twitter feed, both of which you can now easily follow by gently tapping the little blue circles up there in the right-hand corner : ) I try to find and post non-mainstream stuff there as well as images that don't make it onto the blog, so be sure not to miss out on your daily dose of Iceland Eyes.

Thursday 7 November 2013

F concept by Buffalo Kitchens, Bangsar

'F' is actually the name of the restaurant situated at the corner of Jalan Telawi 3 in Bangsar. It was located above Chawan. Its concept is by Buffalo Kitchens. When I walked into the restaurant, there was a shelf with pots and pans. I was told that Buffalo Kitchens was actually a brand for those pots and pans.

The restaurant has a smoking and non- smoking section. It is not a big restaurant. They have this open concept where at one glance you will see their open kitchen, bar and dining room.

We were seated at the corner closest to the kitchen which was not really an ideal place to be dining. This was because the hear from the kitchen affected us and there was no aircond at our section. Because the kitchen was an open concept, we could smell the frying, and we were sweating while eating. That was the not so enjoyable part of the night as we were stuffy and sweaty which thus made us feel tired after our meal. 

Nevertheless, their food was amazing! 12 people, 12 main dishes!! Their menu was unusual and their drink list was interesting too. A few drinks from the list made us laugh like 'Jade Dong Ding', 'Pussy foot', 'Naked Scot' and 'Long Black'. Their drinks menu:

F's food menu:

We started of with appetisers. I wanted to try their 'Duo of crabs' which was soft sell crab and fish cakes. But, because we intend to share the appetiser, the friendly waitress said it will not be enough. She suggested we get the tapas platter which came with a variety of meat such as smoked salmon, smoked duck, beef tataki, hummus, tiger prawns with romesco sauce, freshly baked sour dough, extra virgin olive oil, olives, almonds, grilled bell peppers and sea salt. We went ahead with the waitress suggestion and it was a good choice. Two orders of F's tapas set was good enough to share between all of us.

The funny thing was we were famished therefore we almost finished the meat before the bread came. The waitress was like, "You should stop eating because there was bread to go with the meat."

F TAPAS SET:

For our mains, each of us ordered different dishes. For pasta, we had a choice of angelhair, linguine, squidd ink
1. SOFT SHELL CRAB AND  SEAFOOD MISO CARBONARA

2. SMOKED DUCK BREAST ARBONARA

3. PAN SEARED BARRAMUNDI AND RICH SEAFOOD RISOTTO

4. BEFF TENDERLOIN WITH DUCK FAT POTATOES AND SNOW PEAS

5. OVEN ROASTED CHICKEN CHESTNUT ROULADE

6. FUSION CHICKEN ESCALOPE WITH SPICY WEDGES AND ARUGULA






Drinks:

For dessert:
APPLE CRUMBLE

HOMEMADE TIRAMISU - good stuff

CHOCOLATE BROWNIE ICE CREAM - freshly baked brownies. We were told to wait 20 minutes for it to be ready.

Despite the ambience being a let down, the food was perfectly cooked. Go back for the food, but choose your seats wisely ;)

Tuesday 5 November 2013

Cool


I wonder if those of you who aren't so into music but who love to follow all things Icelandic are tired of hearing about our Airwaves festival. It's definitely been all over all types of media here for the past week, flooding Twitter feeds and print newspapers and everything in between with rave reviews and slightly blurry, colorful concert photos. It wrapped up on Sunday, but even though the music's over we've still got plenty of visitors hanging out, doing last minute touristy-type things, like going to the top of Hallgrímskirkja or buying last-minute postcards for their mothers. In fact, I'm sitting here in the newly-rechristened Kaffismiðjan (it's Reykjavík Roasters now) with three brand-new and very interesting Airwaves friends hearing the happy chatter of international voices surrounding us.

I'm glad I ended up seeing so many excellent and entertaining Icelandic musicians at off-venue sites around town (scroll down the Iceland Eyes Twitter feed for many of the bands I saw.) Their sets were usually on the short side, but when you get to listen to Múm or Berndsen or Hermigervill live, for free, and possibly even dance on chairs at 6:30 in the evening on a Sunday while doing so (here's proof on the Iceland Eyes Facebook Page ) you certainly can't complain. I'm continually stunned by the power and talent of Icelandic music scene, and will be sure to post regularly about it on our social media feeds.

(The image is of a large, random chunk of ice in front of the Harpa events hall, which was the Airwaves main base this year. It is, in my opinion, a very cool addition to our energetic little city : )

Sunday 3 November 2013

Allan Wu says..

One month!

 A month of not blogging goes to show I was too busy to open blogger and start writing. Its a shame really because I still take pictures of everything I do. But, its just pictures kept in my phone. As time goes by, even I forget where or when that picture was taken.

Whats new?
- My hair is now at a managable length.
- I have lost weight but still have more to lose.
- I realise I have become 1 cm shorter!! aka growing old with bad posture :(
- I bake every weekend
- I am busier till I do not have time to even read the newspaper

Whats not new?
- I still love food
- I crave for Japanese food everytime
- My blog ratings are decreasing due to my hiatus and I don't think I care anymore

Introducing my new favourite sushi restaurant- Ichizen. It is located in Pavillion and they currently have 20% discount for any sushi till 30th November 2013.

I loved the food. I liked their service. They come round almost every minute to check if you need to refill your tea. For a new restaurant, it was really packed and there was a queue outside. They do have a good choice of lunch sets which comes at a reasonable price. But, for this month, I am definitely all out for their sushi.

To die for at Ichizen - Salmon mentai sushi and Unagi sushi

Of course, I still enjoy Sushi zanmai. Afterall, Zanmai will always be cheaper. But for more variety, Ichizen is the next best place.

Recalling delicious food from Zanmai:

Besides Japanese food, the craze for burgers has not stopped. This new place called Fuel Shack sells fantastic lamb burger for RM14. There is one at suria KLCC food court and another at the convention centre.

For a meal that is affordable, head over to Restoran Deen at Taman Melawati for some fantastic naan and tandoori.

On another note, The Petronas twin towers turned pink for breast cancer awareness month in October. I loved it that way :)

PIHCS 2013 was a wonderful learning experience.


Friday 1 November 2013

China

On 20 August I dropped Ste off at Heathrow.  It was surreal: all of it.  We'd been playing crazy golf earlier that morning in Liverpool.  He had been terrified for weeks of this, and when it came to it he was remarkably calm.  None of it seemed as though it was happening.  Then he was gone.

In Heathrow. Right before he flew.
I drove back home not knowing what to expect.  He was off for almost a year (well, until June 2014) and it was going to be 12 weeks until I saw him again.  He arrived at midnight, the taxi driver having dropped him off with his suitcase, unable to find his hotel.  He had no wifi and couldn't call.  It was a bit hellish for him to say the least.

Ste has done amazingly since then.  I'm with him for many reasons, but a major one is the way I'm completely in awe of him and his maturity.  He's going to be 21 on 4 November, and has a head on his shoulders like some sensible, worldly-wise 35 year old.  He got through it all: being in a city where absolutely everything is foreign, got into his accommodation early, got his medical done, enrolled in the university, got his internet connection sorted, started classes, was put in the intermediate advanced lessons... and within weeks was asked to move to the advanced class.  He's studying Chinese at a Chinese university, for heaven's sake!  There are only Asians in that group: people who have been studying the language for years and for whom it's much closer related to their native language.  He's such a clever, talented soul.

It's official: he's all signed up!

We talk as much as we did when he was in Manchester: thank god for Skype, iMessage and FaceTime.  He's settled in so incredibly well, made a great circle of friends, and seems to be having the time of his life.  He's actually happier in many ways studying in Beijing than he ever was in Manchester.  I'm so happy about all that and I'm sure it's so so useful for his Chinese.

And now it's time for me to go out there.  The time has flown by, quicker than I thought it would.  I fly tomorrow at 3.30pm with lovely Lufthansa, via Munich.  I'm all packed, I'm restless, I'm excited, and I can't believe I'm going to be with him by Sunday lunchtime.  His Mum, brother, brother's girlfriend and his best friend Rocky are already there.  It's his birthday on Monday and we're going to the Great Wall of China.  What an amazing memory he'll have for a lifetime.  Then we've got 10 days all on our own just to be together.  On the last day it's our 18 month anniversary.  We met on Twitter of all places.

Ste, Family and Rocky. Awww!

I feel a bit dizzy writing this.  How amazing.  How fortunate we are, that I can just pop over there like this.  And there's more: 9 weeks after this trip we're meeting in Guangzhou airport and flying to Sydney together, with a side-trip to Auckland.  This is Ste, who was nervous about taking a train to Suffolk to see me.  I just said "shall we go to Australia?" and he pretty much said "Sure, meet you in some random Chinese airport I've never been to".  Again... amazing.  And in April, we'll have one more visit in China together: it's been a dream of mine to go to Japan to see the cherry blossom on my birthday.  All those airmiles I have saved up are coming in most handy!

I don't know what the point of this blog is.  There isn't a point I guess.  It's just a flood of consciousness, excitement, expectation.  18 months together and I'm like some nervous kid, with butterflies in my tummy.  I just can't wait to see him and hold him again.  I love him so much.  I have to be the luckiest guy in the universe to be his boyfriend.

So, my friends, I won't be on Twitter the next 11 days, but watch this space and I should have a lovely blog post of our adventures shortly after I get back!